Ohio's Attorney General has issued a warning to warn Ohioans of a synthetic opioid that can be up to 40 times more potent than fentanyl.“Frankenstein opioids are even more lethal than the drugs already responsible for so many overdose deaths,” Attorney General Dave Yost said in a press release. “Law enforcement and the public need to pay attention to these emerging hazards.”The drug, called Nitazene, comes from a drug class known as benzimidazole-opioids and was originally synthesized in the 1950s to research their analgesic effects, but was not approved for medical use anywhere in the world.In the first quarter of this year, the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) reported 143 nitazene cases in Ohio.Over the same span in 2021, 27 cases were reported.Yost's office says that, in some instances, nitazenes are being found in combination with other drugs, primarily fentanyl but also tramadol, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and PCP analogs.For more information on nitazene use in Ohio, click here.